Aldi opens a broomstick parking bay for Halloween at its Water Lane store in York until 31 October

Key Takeaways

• Aldi UK has opened a dedicated broomstick parking bay for witches and wizards at its Water Lane store in York.

• The pop-up features a purpose-built broom rack, spooky signage and broomstick floor vinyl, with press handled by Aldi's consumer PR agency Taylor Herring.

• It accompanies Aldi's Halloween range, which includes pumpkins from 35p, Halloween Inflatables at £9.99 and Creepy Breaded Chicken Bats at £2.99.

• Shoppers can visit the bay until 31 October 2026, and Aldi chose York after 28% of Brits named it the most haunted place in the UK.

Aldi UK has opened a broomstick parking bay for Halloween at its Water Lane store in York, giving any witches and wizards who fly in for their weekly shop a proper place to leave their transport while they browse the seasonal aisles. The bay, which was announced on 22 October and stays in place until 31 October, comes complete with a purpose-built rack, spooky signage and broomstick floor vinyl, and Aldi says local shoppers and children have already spotted it.

The stunt takes a typical car parking space and adds one small supernatural twist that anyone walking past can take in at a glance and photograph for local news pages and social feeds. The choice of York is tied to the campaign's research as well, since 28% of the Brits Aldi surveyed named the city as the most haunted place in the UK, which makes it the obvious place for a supermarket to start catering for broomstick traffic.

Aldi's York broomstick parking bay promotes a Halloween range with pumpkins from 35p

The pop-up at Water Lane is built to look like a genuine piece of car park infrastructure, so there is a dedicated rack for brooms, spooky signage and vinyl markings on the floor that show where a broomstick should go, and it will remain in place for visitors to see until Halloween night. Julie Ashfield, Chief Commercial Officer at Aldi UK, said "Halloween is all about a little surprise and magic, so we're delighted to give shoppers at the Water Lane store in York something they won't expect to see on their usual Aldi trip – a dedicated parking space for broomsticks. Complete with its own rack and spooky signage, it's a spellbinding way to welcome witches and wizards while they stock up on frightfully good value Halloween favourites."

The Halloween range has everything from spooky decorations to party food and sweet treats, with Halloween Inflatables at £9.99 and a Halloween Large Spiderweb at £7.99 to help set the scene. On the menu are Creepy Breaded Chicken Bats at £2.99 for 350g, Ghoulish Garlic Bread at £1.79, a Witches Green Cheese Cauldron at £3.49 and Gruesomely Spooky Sliders at £5.99.

For something sweet, shoppers can pick up a four pack of Mummies and Tombstones at £3.49, 600g Halloween Sweet Tubs at £3.69, Chocolate Bats at £1.99 and Chocolate Lollies at £2.69. Pumpkins start from just 35p, which Aldi says makes them the cheapest available at any UK supermarket.

The wider research behind the stunt surveyed 2,000 Brits about their plans for the season, and it found that 84% enjoy celebrating Halloween, 66% are decorating their homes and the average person plans to attend at least two Halloween events or activities. Spending is a big part of the picture, as 81% plan to spend money on Halloween with an average budget of £50, which goes mostly on costumes at 23% and sweets and treats at 22%, followed by decorations at 12%, food and drink at 9% and pumpkins at 7%. Parties are a major draw too, since 40% plan to host a gathering with an average hosting spend of £65, 63% plan to attend one and 23% are even preparing two different outfits. Seasonal outings are just as popular, because 81% also plan to spend on Halloween activities and experiences, led by pumpkin picking at 48%, themed amusement parks and spooky cinema screenings at 27% each, ghost tours at 25% and immersive fright nights at 24%, so a supernatural surprise during a routine shop fits neatly into the way people now treat the whole month as an event.

The idea also borrows directly from Aldi's own Christmas playbook, as in December 2023 the supermarket painted a rooftop parking space for Santa's sleigh on its Knutsford store, an 11 metre long and six metre wide yellow bay with reserved spaces for all nine reindeer, which Julie Ashfield, then Managing Director of Buying, said "was specifically crafted for Santa's visit."

Taylor Herring, Aldi's consumer PR agency, has kept up a steady rhythm of these physical, easily photographed ideas through the autumn, which earlier included turning the Barnet store in London Barbie pink to launch the £12.99 Barbie Aldimania Dreamland Doll ahead of its arrival in stores on 6 September, replacing the store's familiar blue, red and orange logo with pink as part of the September Toy Event. Later that month the agency followed up with the Swag For Life Jacket, a navy waterproof bomber that converts into a shopping bag in about ten seconds, after Aldi research found that 46% of Brits regularly forget their shopping bags and 85% keep a bag of bags at home, with the jacket offered through an email giveaway on the Aldi website.

Aldi has also shown this autumn how far it will stretch a running joke, with Aldi asking every Colin to become a Cuthbert for its caterpillar cake in a McCann Manchester campaign that turned a long-running rivalry into a fresh piece of character-led fun. The broomstick bay follows the same instinct of taking an everyday supermarket detail and giving it a playful character twist that shoppers can see for themselves in store.